Bedding



A. BRAMLEY Dec. 4, 1962 BEDDING AFiled June 24, 1959 Uilii@ u aientzed Dec.. 4t, 1952 3,6.D66,646 BEIEDING Anthony Bramley, Gosford House9 Gosford, Iidiington, England Filed .inne 24, 1959, Ser. No. S2 ,520 Claims priority, appiieation Great @et 1953 1 (ill. 119m@ The present invention relates to bedding and particularly to bedding for livestock, such as cattle and horses, and domestic animals such as dogs or cats.

It is at the present time usual practice to provide a layer of straw or the like .as bedding for cattle. The amount of straw available in a farm of average size has in the past usually been suiv`eient `for this purpose. As a result of the increase in the percentage of short cereal which is now grown the amount of straw iavailable has fallen considerably, and `following a bad harvest the supply may not meet the demand.

It is an object of the present invention to provide bedding for cattle which can be used in place of a bedding of straw.

According to a iirst aspect of the present invention, there is provided a bedding unit comprising a body of a foamed plastics material and an envelope of a waterproof material enclosing the body.

According lto a second aspect oi the present invention there is provided a bedding unit comprising a body of a oamed plastics material and a surface coating of an impervious material completely enveloping said body.

Some embodiments of the invention will now be described by Way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG l is a plan View of a bedding unit according to the irst aspect of the invention,

FIG. 2 is a cross-section of the unit shown in FIG. 1 taken on the line II-II in lFIG. l,

FIG. 3 is a cross-section of the unit shown in FIG. 1 taken on the line III- III in FIG. 1, and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged part crossseetion of a bedding unit according to the second aspect of the present invention, the cross-section corresponding to that shown in FIG. 2,

FIGS. 1, 2 tand 3 show a bedding unit comprising a resilient body 11 enclosed in an envelope 12.

The resilient body 11 is formed from a foamed plastics material. A suitable material is known as a cross linked polyether, and one which is particularly suitable for the unit now described is sold under the name Aeropreen and is referred to as polyether APPlS. The latter material has a density of 1.98-2.2 lbs. per cu. ft., and a hardness figure of 27. The body 11 may be of any desired size. In the embodiment now described it is 5 6" long and 3 4 wide. It is 3" thick at one end and tapers uniformly to the opposite end where it is 11/2 thick.

The envelope 12 is formed trom two rectangular sheets 13 and 14 of a plastics laminated material. In the embodiment now described the laminated material consists of Woven polyethylene terephthalate lament placed between two calendered plies of polyvinylchloride plasticised with a known plasticiser. The sheets 13 and 14 are placed one over the other and stitched and Welded together along three of the four edges 15 to form an open bag. The Welding operation is carried out by using ythe well known .technique of radio frequency welding.

The resilient body 11 is inserted into the open end ofthe envelope V12, which is of such ia size as to tit closely round the lbody 11, and the open end of the envelope 12 CTI 2 is sealed by stitching and welding along the edge.

The bedding unit so Jformed is laid on the `ground in a pen in which cattle are to be housed. ri`he unit is of considerable strength by virtue of its 'fabric-reinforced envelope and will withstand very rough treatment. It certainly suffers no damage when walked on by cattle. The cattle readily settle down on the bedding unit and from observations made, appear to prefer this form of bedding to one composed of loose straw.

It will be apparent that when large areas are to be provided with bedding a plurality of bedding units may be placed side by side to cover the area.

The manufacture of bedding units las hereinbefore described may be regarded as complex and for some purposes the unit may be considered lto be unnecessarily robust. An alternative form of unit is shown in FIG. 4 and will now be described with reference to this iigure.

1deferring to FIG. 4, a bedding unit comprises a body 16 identical in shape and size to the body 11 and composed oi a teamed plastics material identical to that of the body 11. The body 16 has a surface coating 17 of polyvinylchloride.

In the manufacture of the unit shown in FIG. 4, the surfaces of the body lo are iirst treated by applying a coating of a material known as Dupon-ts Hypalon. A coating of polytfinylchloride is then applied by spraying the body with liquid polyvinyichloride, which gels on to the Hypalon coating `and sets. The polyvinylchloride coating is made suiiiciently `thick to render it tough enough to withstand trampling by cattle. It is impervious to liquids and can readily be cleaned and hosed down. The taper given to the unit facilitates draining during the washing operation.

A similar unit may be formed by applying to the surfaces of the body 16 a coating of Duponts I-Iypalon and then dipping the body into a bath of liquid polyvinylchloride. A coating of the liquid polyvinylchloride gels to the surface coating of Hypalon on withdrawal of the body and :finally sets to form a tough impervious layer completely enclosing the body.

I claim:

A bedding unit for cattle comprising a substantially rectangular body of resilient lfoamed polyurethane; said body having a front edge and a rear edge; the depth of said polyurethane being within a range of 2.5 to 3 inches at the front edge and between 1.5 to 2 inches at the rear edge; there being a continuous taper from said front edge to said rear edge in order to provide drainage thereof and added cushioning for the -forelegs of the cattle during a kneeling process; and a sealed waterproof envelope, composed of polyvinylchloride reinforced with -a polyethylene terephthalate web, totally enclosing said body and corresponding in dimensions thereto.

remaining References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS I 2,081,334 Kickenbush May 25, 1937 2,110,909 Henderson Mar. 15, 1938 2,665,664 Benjamin Jan. 12, 1954 2,720,861 Stroup et al. Oct. 18, 1955 FOREIGN PATENTS 769,680 Great Britain Mar. 13, 1957 1,188,913 France Mar. 16. 1959 OTHER REFERENCES Modern Plastics, Polyurethane, pages 10G-108, 

